The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Lisgar (1st Lord)
Lisgar (1st Lord), better known as the Right Hon. Sir John Young, Bart., P.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., was the eldest son of Sir William Young, 1st baronet of Bailieborough Castle, co. Cavan, and a director of the East India Company. He was born at Bailieborough Castle on April 30th, 1807, and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1829. He represented the county of Cavan in the House of Commons from 1831 to 1855. In 1834 he was called to the bar, and in the following year he married Adelaide Annabella, daughter of the late Marchioness of Headfort by her first husband, Edward Tuite Dalton. Lady Lisgar survived him, and married secondly, in 1878, the late Sir Francis Fortescue Turville, K.C.M.G. Sir John Young held a minor office in the English Ministry in 1841, succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1848, and was Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1852. In 1855 he was appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and held that position till their cession to Greece in 1859. In Jan. 1861 he was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, the title of Governor-General, borne by his predecessors, being discontinued from this time forth. Sir John arrived in Sydney in March 1861; but as the patent of his appointment was not forthcoming, he acted as Administrator only until May, when the necessary document arrived. During the political crisis occasioned by the struggle over the Robertson Land Bill, Sir John Young adopted the advice of his ministers with regard to the creation of sufficient new councillors to carry the measure over the heads of the majority in the Upper House. The course adopted did not meet with the approval of the Colonial Office; but his term of office, which expired in Dec. 1867, was on the whole successful, and he himself popular. From 1868 to 1872 he was Governor-General of Canada, and in 1872 was created a peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Lisgar of Lisgar and Bailieborough. Lord Lisgar died on Oct. 14th, 1876, without male issue, when the peerage became extinct, and the baronetcy devolved upon his nephew.